Of Chess and Brothers
by MissPatriciaPotter
Summary: Non- yaoi, Fluff, slight angst one-shot, cuteness, and brotherly bonding. At Mokuba’s school they are learning how to play chess. What better way to learn then through his brother?


Summary- (Non-yaoi, Fluff, slight angst one-shot, cuteness, and brotherly bonding) In Mokuba's school, they are learning how to play chess. What better way to learn than through his brother?

Of Chess and Brothers

By MissPatriciaPotter

Disclaimer- I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, the Kaiba brothers, or the game of chess. This is a fan-based work and I am not making any money from it.

Authors notes- This was inspired by a really weird dream that I had a while ago. I remember waking up and wondering, 'what if Mokuba did not know how to play chess?'

Thanks to my beta dreameaterishungry for the beta job

"Next week, on Friday's class, we will have a chess competition," Mokuba's teacher walked through the straight aisles of desks, her flowery skirt flowed along with her as she moved. "Now remember this is going to be a fun game. It doesn't matter if this is the first time you have played, or the millionth."

'Not if you are a brother of a chess genius.' Mokuba thought to himself. It was true, Seto was a chess genius along with being the CEO of Kaiba Corp. Seto during his youth, had played the most important game of his life, his opponent, a one Gozaburo Kaiba. The prize, if Seto won Gozaburo would adopt Seto and Mokuba. And if Gozaburo won, he would only adopt Seto. Seto had won, surprising the older man. As a man who always kept his promises, he adopted both of the brothers.

A chess board was still set up in Seto's office at home, which was a sprawling mansion with acres of land around it. It was the once site of their adopted father's house. When he died, it all went to Seto. The first thing of their former adopted father's, that Seto had destroyed, was his office.

Mokuba had bought the board for Seto's last birthday. It had been bought from a specialty shop, where they made custom pieces and boards. The pieces were made entirely of glass and were painted with ceramic paints. Each piece was in a shape of a different Duel Monster character, with the king, being the Blue Eyes White Dragon. Seto had loved it, he just never played chess anymore. Mokuba thought it was because of the memories that went with chess. Those were locked away in both of the brother's dark parts of their minds, a place they never wanted to look back on.

When they were younger, Seto had tried to teach Mokuba chess, but he failed miserably. Sure, Seto had tried to go easy on him by trying to let him win, but Mokuba did not see the point of the game. He thought it was a frivolous and a boring game. He knew his brother saw the 'true meaning' behind it, but frankly, Mokuba did not see that way. For chess, a person had to have patience. Unfortunately, Mokuba did not posses this character trait.

A sheet of paper was handed out to all the students, explaining the various pieces in chess, how they moved on the board, and what you could do with them. Basically, it was a 'Dummies' Guide to Chess'. It all looked like gibberish to Mokuba, so he folded the piece of paper in half, and slipped it into his pocket.

Seto had tried to explain the pieces of chess to him one time. He had tried to explain the pieces by refering them to something that Mokuba knew about, companies.

Flashback:

_"Come on Mokie, let's play!" Seto tugged on Mokuba's sleeve lightly, The two of them were in Gozaburo's office. It was a fortnight after the fateful chess match, or in the brothers case, fate shouldn't have happened. Sure they had a roof over their heads and they were still together, just as Seto had promised. Gozaburo lived in a huge mansion with many servants. The brothers still hadn't explored the vast expanse of the mansion, as some of the floors were forbidden for them to go on. Gozaburo's personal assistant, Gobson always checked on the brothers and made sure that Seto has been doing his studies that Gozaburo insisted he do. For the first week, the two brothers had been allowed to sleep in the same room together. They were both happy for this sense of closeness, but for some odd reason they knew that it wouldn't last. Seto had told Mokuba before they were adopted that he had found out as much as he could about Gozaburo. The results didn't turn out to promising. He was known as a ruthless business man that always got what he wanted. With some of the newspaper articles that he had read, it sometimes mentioned a son, but nobody knew for sure if Gozaburo Kaiba had a son or not. The next week at breakfast, Gozaburo commented on the fact that Mokuba will have his own room on the fifth floor. _

_Gozaburo's office was much like the man himself, big and domineering. The two sat on the floor by the chairs, Gozaburo had left to do some business with a couple of the associates. Mokuba lay on the ground, his eyes slowly drooping. He hadn't gotten much sleep last night. There had been a thunderstorm last. Mokuba hated thunderstorms and couldn't sleep through them, unless someone was there. Mokuba did not want to risk going to Seto's room so he stayed up all night. He also hated to bug Seto, he seemed to be working so hard on his 'studies'. _

_Mokuba reluctantly got up and followed Seto to the reception area, where Seto had asked one of the secretaries to set up a chess board for the two of them. The chess board was set up on a table, Mokuba took the white side while Seto took the black. _

_"You go first Mokie," Seto pointed to the white pieces that were already set up. _

_Mokuba not knowing how the pieces could move took the rook uncertainly and moved it over the pawn. _

_Seto noticed his brother's mistake right away. "I'm sorry Mokie you can't do that." _

_"It's okay. Could you teach me?" Mokuba looked up at Seto with huge pleading eyes. _

_Seto smiled, Mokuba always seemed to have a positive effect on him. "Of course." Seto pointed to the row of the pieces in the front. He picked one up and showed it to Mokuba. "This is a pawn. You could compare this to... everyday employees." _

_Gozaburo walked in, followed by a couple of men dressed in Armani suits. He talked with the two men. There were a few glances toward the two brothers and "I sees." _

_A secretary came in. She was wearing a black skirt that went down to her knees and a white blouse. She walked over to the young boys. "Mr. Kaiba has told me that Mokuba has to leave." Gozaburo had told the two on the way here that Mokuba could stay for a while but then he would have to leave, as Seto was starting his 'business training' today. _

_The brothers exchanged a quick hug and with a whispered promise to meet one another on the fifth floor bathroom at midnight. Mokuba then left with the women leaving Seto with his adopted Father and the odd looking businessmen. _

End Flashback

Mokuba placed his binder into his locker then he gathered up all the items that he would need for tonight. Once everything was packed, he went outside. Outside it was quite pleasant. The sun shone down in small beams and there was just the right amount of wind to make it the prefect day.

The black limo was waiting for Mokuba at the front of the school as always. Inside the limo, Mokuba visited with Seto, or more like Seto typed on his laptop and Mokuba talked. Mokuba knew that Seto was listening even though it looked like he wasn't. Seto had surprised him at times, for when Mokuba didn't think Seto was listening where in fact he was.

"Hey Nii-san." Mokuba greeted Seto as he looked over the top of his laptop as they pulled onto the main highway.

"Hi Mokuba, how was school?" Seto had resumed the role of the concerned parent, a role that Seto had learned to play when their parents had died. Mokuba could see why Seto had such a reason to be worried. He had been kidnapped numerous times. Mokuba was the one person that Seto cared about. Mokuba, after all, was the only family that Seto had left after their parents had died.

"It was okay," Mokuba looked at the window and said, "we are learning how to play chess."

The last part caught Seto's attention, "chess?"

Mokuba nodded. Suddenly he remembered the piece of paper that his teacher had handed out earlier that afternoon. He found the paper, and passed it to Seto. Seto set down his laptop on the seat and glanced at the paper.

"The basics I'm assuming?"

"Yup, but I want to ask you something. Could you teach me how to play?"

"Of course, I've always tried to teach you." Seto said.

xxxxx

After a brief supper, the Kaiba brothers headed to Seto's office. A regular chess board with the normal white and black pieces had been set up. Like the match they had started at Gozaburo's office, Mokuba took white and Seto took black.

"In chess, white goes first, the front row is called the pawns, they are the least powerful group. They can move foreword one square at a time. Although the first pawn you can move two spaces ahead." That was Seto's explanation. Mokuba took a pawn into his tiny fingers and moved it two spaces ahead. Seto countered by moving a pawn of his two spaces ahead.

The next piece that Seto explained was the rook. The game continued until well after Mokuba's bedtime. Seto finally realised what time it was after he checked his watch. "I think it's time to go to bed," Seto commented after Mokuba yawned.

Mokuba protested, "but Seto?"

"If you don't go to bed now, there will be no video games for a week!" It was true. Seto had banned Mokuba from his video games a couple of times. Mokuba sighed. He slipped off the chair and headed upstairs to where his room was located. It wasn't still on the fifth floor, but on the third floor. Once Gozaburo had died, Seto had taken over the house and rearranged everything. This included the brothers bedrooms, Mokuba's room was now right beside Seto's. Once in his room, Mokuba slipped into his blue silk pyjamas that Seto had gotten him for last Christmas. He was just about ready to slip into bed when a knock resonated from the door. Mokuba sighed and got up.

It was Seto, standing there dressed in his housecoat, holding a plate of chocolate chip cookies.

"I thought that you might a want a snack before you went to bed," Seto set the plate on Mokuba's bedside table.

Mokuba took a cookie from the plate and climbed onto the bed.

Seto turned to leave, but was stopped when he heard Mokuba calling out saying, "Seto." Seto stopped and turned to face his brother. Upon seeing that he had gotten his brother's undivided attention he asked, "could you tell me a story about when mom and dad were alive."

Seto was puzzled. He knew that Mokuba one day were to have the desire to know about this when he was older, but he never thought it would be so soon. "Why?" Seto finally asked.

"I've just been thinking about it."

"Maybe another time," Seto urged, "after all," Seto pointed to Mokuba's alarm clock, "it's getting late."

Seto tucked Mokuba into his bed, when Seto was leaving Mokuba whispered, "you promise?"

Seto stopped dead in his tracks, "I've always kept my promises haven't I?" It was true Seto always kept his promises. The promise that Seto had made to Mokuba at the orphanage still stood true, he hadn't let himself be adopted without Mokuba.

Flashback:

_One of the workers at the orphanage accompanied Seto through the hallways of Domino Orphanage. Seto was led to what the kids around the orphanage referred to as the 'meeting room'. This was where a child would meet with a future parent. The room which once was probably a cheerful room was now dull and office-like. A filling cabinet towered in the corner and a desk was in the center. A tired couple was sitting on the hard plastic chairs in front of the orphanage's director. In between the couple was a chair. Seto supposed that was where he would sit. _

_"Miss Peterson, you can now leave, Seto could you come over here." Seto did as he was told. He positioned himself between the two. Seto looked to one side, both looked so eager to adopt him. _

_"Seto, I have called you here because Mr. and Mrs. Cooper want to adopt you." _

_"Mokuba and me?"__ Seto asked curiously, he would only go if both of them were adopted. _

_"Seto we have been over this. It may not be possible to find someone to adopt both of you." _

_"Then I don't care who wants to adopt me! Mokuba and I are a two for one package." Seto turned to the couple, their once smiling faces was replaced by frown and looks of disappointment. "I'm sorry Mr and Mrs. Cooper, but I can't leave my brother here, I made a promise." Seto left the room quickly, slamming the door in the process. As he left he heard Mrs. Jameson say, "sorry about that, there are plenty of other children to adopt." _

_Mokuba was perched on top of the bed, playing with a small stuffed toy that one of the orphanage staff had given to him. Mokuba looked up as Seto stormed in. _

_"Big brother?"_

_"Yes Mokie?" _

_"What was that about?" _

_"Nothing, Mokuba.__ Nothing." _

End Flashback

"Well goodnight Mokuba." And with that said Seto slipped off to go to bed as well.

Xxxxxx

On the day of the chess tournament at school, Mokuba was super giddy. He just couldn't wait to leave the mansion. Mokuba sat in class waiting for the hour at which it was going to take place. Six boards had been set up as well as two teacher assistants had come in to supervise the games. Finally, it had arrived. Their teacher divided the class into half. The first half would play against someone from the other side, until finally the final two. Mokuba was in the first half. His first opponent was girl with pigtails that bobbed from side to side. She smiled slightly at Mokuba as they sat down.

Xxxxxx

"How was your chess competition?" Seto asked as he sliced the pepperoni to put into the pizza that the two of them were making. On Friday nights, Seto gave the in house staff the day off. Seto hadn't been in the limo when Mokuba had gotten in. He had explained though, that there had been a huge crash at Kaiba Corporation. Thankfully, it was all now fixed now and almost all the lost data had been recovered.

Seto usually made supper once a week. Seto had picked up the culinary art after Gozaburo had died.

Mokuba plopped down on a stool near the island. "It was okay, I got third out." Mokuba smiled, "but don't worry one day I'll beat you."

"I'm on Mokuba."

Authors Notes- Some liberties with Seto and Mokuba's past have been taken. According to my research, Seto and Mokuba arrived at the orphanage when Mokuba was five and Seto was nine. I think that in the show that it showed Seto showing Mokuba how to play chess, but let's just forget about this little fact. Anyways please review.


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